Conscious consumption: what it is and why everyone should think about it

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Things that have been pleasing for years, a balanced approach to food preparation, separate waste collection and other ways to be responsible.

What is Conscious Consumption

By concentrating on our actions, you can notice how much we do out of habit, as if we have no choice, or as if "it will do just that." Whereas a conscious approach to everything that is bought, used and thrown away can change for the better the privacy of the modern city dweller and the state of the planet as a whole. If waste isn't your goal, it's helpful to think about how to avoid it.

How fast fashion forces you to buy excess

Until the twentieth century, fashion was "slow": dresses and suits were made by tailors to order, fabrics were expensive. However, with the advent of factory production and ready-to-wear shops, the opposite problem arose - overproduction. Now every resident of developed countries can walk into a store and buy a cheap polyester sweater, which may only be worn once. This is fast fashion - "fast fashion", due to which casual purchases accumulate in closets with dead weight, and then go to the trash heap. In Hong Kong alone, 1,400 T-shirts are thrown away every minute.

At the same time, a huge amount of water is wasted in the production of clothing. According to Greenpeace, 2,700 liters are consumed per T-shirt - that is how much one person consumes in an average of 900 days. When dyeing fabrics, many harmful substances are used. For example, fluorinated compounds (PFCs), heavy metals and solvents. All this ends up in rivers, polluting drinking water. The problem is especially acute for the countries of Southeast Asia, where many factories are located.

Every year the world produces 400 billion square meters of fabric, of which 60 billion are simply thrown away or burned. The same fate awaits unsold things. The fact that customers still take home in bags with the names of popular brands also does not last long. But only a quarter of textile waste is recycled.

Despite the fact that the fashion industry is costly for the planet, this state of affairs is supported by all market participants.

Manufacturers strive to sell as much as possible. Collections in the mass market are changed several times a season. Each time, a new marketing campaign assures that these are the things that cannot be done without. Brands create artificial excitement, limiting collections: have time to buy, otherwise you will not get these things! And in the next season the same thing is repeated.

Shoppers want the quick pleasure that impulse shopping brings. A short euphoria ends with regrets when the acquired gets bored. So there is a feeling of "a full wardrobe, but nothing to wear." As the American economic theorist John Galbraith noted, in a consumer society, purchases are made under the influence of emotions.

According to Katherine Ormerod, author of How Social Networks Destroy Your Life, social media forces people to spend money they don't really have. At the same time, buying inexpensive clothes made according to the principles of "fast fashion" is not so profitable. In an effort to reduce the price and translate quality into quantity, mass market manufacturers use the cheapest materials. Such clothes quickly lose their shape, become covered with pellets and deteriorate after washing, and the buyer returns to the store for a new one.

Another way to make production cheaper is to pay workers less and not provide them with decent working conditions. Realizing that the clothes of mass brands like H&M and Zara are made by the hands of people forced to work without fans and in emergency buildings for $ 100 a month, somewhat changes the way the fashion industry is viewed. Garment factory workers are on strike in Bangladesh right now. The main requirement is to improve working conditions.

What to do

• Better to buy a more expensive piece of clothing, but made from quality materials. Instead of buying an inexpensive trendy item, take an interesting wardrobe item in second-hand for the same amount - there you can find things of famous brands with high-quality tailoring.
• Instead of shoes from the mass market, which are losing their decent look by the next season, buy a pair at a higher price, which will last a long time and will pay off already next year.
• Don't throw away your old clothes in the trash. Better to have a clothes exchange party. Also, things can be taken to a charity store: "Shop of Joys" and "BlagoButik" in Moscow, "Thank you" in St. Petersburg, "ObniMir" in Obninsk, "So simple" in Cherepovets.
• Throw yourself a challenge or join an existing one. In the West, the no-buy movement is gaining momentum, supported by fashion bloggers. The bottom line is not to buy new clothes and cosmetics for at least a year. Instead of showing new purchases, participants tell how to get along with old ones or choose the most needed products.

How edible products go to the trash heap

Overproduction of food is another significant problem that is wasting a lot of human labor and earthly resources. Much of the food we buy in supermarkets just goes missing. Both half-eaten dishes and food that have not yet managed to get out of the packaging onto the plates fly from the refrigerators to the trash can. Moreover, a lot of store products are thrown away even before meeting with the buyer: those whose shelf life has come or just coming to an end, batches with packaging defects. And that's not to mention the huge waste of food production.

According to a report by the UN FAO (the UN's agricultural arm), the United States dumps about 40% of all food produced. On average, about a third of all food products are wasted all over the world - this is about 1.3 billion tons per year. In Russia, according to Rosstat, an average of 25% of purchased fruits, 15% of canned meat and 20% of potatoes and flour are thrown away.

At the same time, resources are distributed unevenly. About 1 billion people in the world go hungry - and this is happening in the 21st century. To help them, residents of more prosperous countries do not even need to deny themselves anything. It would be enough just to cut waste by half, the UN says. Due to the overproduction of food products, a huge amount of other valuable resources is wasted: water, land, energy. And all this for the sake of, for example, growing fruits that customers send to the trash can, and stores - to trash cans.

A careful approach to shopping in supermarkets, storing and preparing food will help not only save the planet's resources, but also save money.

What to do

• Do not neglect goods that do not lose in quality, but look a little worse than the rest: asymmetrical and "ugly" fruits, packages with torn labels. It is these products that will be thrown away by the supermarket in the first place. Prizma recently launched a campaign in support of lonely bananas, displaying posters explaining that these fruits are no different from others (customers rarely take bananas torn from a bunch).
• Start sharing and sharing. Do not rush to throw out expired boxes of cereals and cereals - it is better to submit an ad to one of the many "Give for free" groups in social networks or post it on Avito. There you can take something for yourself or change.
• Reconsider the approach to expiration dates. They are exhibited by the manufacturer, relying on their own research, and, according to Russian GOST, after the expiration of the term, the product is considered unsafe. However, it does not necessarily become harmful on the very same day - it makes sense to pay attention to the smell and appearance. Non-perishable foods may still be quite edible. In addition, something can be saved by recycling. For example, make cottage cheese from milk.
• Buy and cook just as much as you need. If you are not going on an expedition, and the store is located in the next house, it is better to have a short time than a long time.

How electricity and water are used

Fossil fuel power plants deplete non-renewable natural resources: gas, oil and coal. In addition, the use of such fuels causes the production of a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. Temperatures on Earth have continued to rise - especially since 1980, when each of the past three decades has been warmer than the last. According to the conclusion of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, this is largely related to human activities.

Also, the operation of power plants is harmful to our health, which can be noticed today. For example, in China's Heibei province, coal-fired power plants are responsible for 75% of premature deaths within one year. Air pollution of this kind leads to an increase in the incidence of lung cancer, childhood asthma and chronic bronchial diseases. Of course, no one is ready to give up electricity at all. However, even devices in standby mode that are simply plugged into an outlet consume electricity. Therefore, a reasonable consumption of resources is also an opportunity to significantly reduce utility bills.

The situation is no better with the way water resources are used. It would seem that the world's oceans are huge, and there is more water on the planet than land. Nevertheless, more than 40% of humanity suffers from the shortage of clean drinking water. Its absence and unsanitary conditions are the cause of high infant mortality in developing countries, in the poorest regions of which up to 1.5 million children under five years of age die from infectious diseases during the year. Whereas in countries whose residents have the opportunity to freely use water, 1 liter flows out of one tap per minute. And this is at that moment when, for example, we are brushing our teeth or are simply distracted by something.

What to do

• Turn off lights in rooms where you are not. Sometimes you can get by with natural light, especially if you hang light curtains. It makes sense to buy energy-saving light bulbs that last 7-8 times longer than incandescent bulbs.
• Replace old electrical appliances that waste a lot of energy with more economical ones (again, choosing responsibly - let the device be durable). Do not use equipment in vain: the less time the refrigerator is open, the better, and fill the washing machine and dishwasher completely. This, by the way, will help save on detergents and cleaning products.
• Install water-saving shower heads and faucets to save water. You can find them on Aliexpress for. You can also purchase a toilet with different flushing modes - more abundant or economical.
• Reuse water after washing fruits and other not particularly dirty items. For example, for watering flowers (of course, if no detergents were used).

How We Produce Waste and What Happens to It Next

Almost every day we take out a bag of garbage in the trash and say goodbye to it forever. But waste doesn't end there. They are sent to landfills, which pollute water bodies and literally do not give a breath to residents of neighboring areas, or turn into hazardous smoke from incinerators.

In Russia alone, 70 million tons of household waste is generated per year - 10 times the weight of the Cheops pyramid. When looking at statistics, it seems that the human economy is a huge mechanism that converts natural resources into toxic substances. And this despite the fact that a very small part of things generally has time to serve properly. 80% of all goods are thrown away in the first six months after they are produced.

The most progressive way to handle waste is recycling. Thanks to this, landfills will become smaller, and resources for the production of new things will be saved. To establish recycling, separate waste collection is required, which has already been introduced by many countries from Japan to Sweden. However, in Russia, such initiatives remain private due to the looseness of such practices at the state level. In 2014, out of 71 million tons of solid municipal waste (MSW), only 7.5% was involved in the economic turnover - everything else was buried in landfills.

The most radical project, Zero Waste, offers a lifestyle in which a person does not produce garbage at all. According to the ideologues of the movement, it is not so difficult to give up everything superfluous, reduce consumption, reuse things, recycle and compost. Of course, a completely waste-free life in a metropolis is a difficult task, but you can start small: make it so that there is less waste and it is sorted. This will help the ecology, facilitate the work of utilities and will allow you to go to the trash heap less often.

What to do

• Try to sort your trash at home. How to do this, tells, in particular, the project "". It is quite possible to achieve separate waste collection in your home. You can do the same with office waste. To find out where the collection points are located, use the map.
• Do not use plastic bags. It is predicted that by 2050 there will be more packages in the oceans than fish. You can get a canvas tote bag or use an old school string bag that will work for larger groceries. At the checkout, when the seller begins to put each purchase in a plastic bag, give up this too.
• Choose products with the least amount of packaging, and also large packs instead of small ones. Don't buy bottled water. A good filter usually solves problems with tap water purification. If it still raises doubts, cool the boiled one.
• Carry a water bottle and cutlery with you to avoid using disposables.
• Dispose of hazardous waste properly. Some shops and public spaces have collection points for batteries.

Who Needs Awareness and Why

Consciousness is not a problem for those who do not even have the most basic necessities. However, if any surpluses are formed, this is already a reason to think about how they are spent.

Of course, we cannot control everything. If you are not Angelina Jolie, you will not be able to directly help the children of Africa. This means that you should not go to the opposite extreme and live with guilt. Yet, along with things beyond our control, there are those that we can personally influence. Even if it seems insignificant on a planetary scale.

The reasons for a conscious approach to consumption can be different: ethical, environmental, purely practical and even psychotherapeutic (fast consumption and unbridled consumerism do not make people so happy). According to the author of the book "" Marie Kondo, a small number of truly loved and useful things bring much more joy and peace of mind than shelves filled with indistinct rags and knickknacks.

Whatever the motivation, a deliberate approach is to stop for a second and ask yourself before you buy a product or start using something: what consequences will this have for me and the world around you?